Dozens of villages with hundreds of inhabitants were evacuated in the western part of the Peloponnesian Peninsula near Olympia. Although Olympia was saved, fires continue to rage in the area.
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However, the people of Lasdikas, for example, refused to leave their homes on Wednesday evening.
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“Leave? And where to go? And let my house burn down? If we left, this place could burn. We told women, children and the elderly to leave. Whoever could, stayed to help as much as he could, “said Giannis Kanellopulos, 71.
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He added that the fire was devastating. “The agricultural wealth of the village has been destroyed. There was nothing left, olive trees, sheep, goats, horses, nothing.
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But many could not put out fire, because there was no water. Residents therefore turned to firefighters, who told them that the fire could not be stopped.
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A whirlwind north of Athens
In contrast, several villages near the devastating fire north of Athens were evacuated by authorities, including an asylum center.
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The flames were blown again by a strong westerly wind on Thursday afternoon, and by Friday morning they had driven about a 20-kilometer-long forest area to a highway that connects the Greek capital with the north of the country.
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Burning house in the Greek village of Afidnes 30 km north of Athens
Photo: Thanassis Stavrakis, CTK / AP
Authorities on the road stopped traffic and firefighters tried to create barriers so that the fire would not hit the city of Marathon. The fire destroyed dozens of houses, including a car recycling plant.
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Greek Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias said at least nine firefighters had been injured near Athens, two of whom are in the intensive care unit.
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Fire on the island
The situation has also worsened on the second largest Greek island of Euboea. The Coast Guard launched a rescue operation and evacuated 631 people from the beaches since Thursday evening.
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Flames have burned large areas in the north of the island since Tuesday. In some places, they reached the coast. There are at least 11 firefighters with burns at the local health center.
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According to firefighters, 86 new fires have broken out in Greece in the past 24 hours, contributing not only to wind but also to temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. Strong winds and high temperatures are expected to continue in the coming days.
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The five largest fires have been burning for several days, with over a thousand firefighters working on them, as well as hundreds of volunteers and almost 20 planes and helicopters.
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The fire also hit a car recycling plant in the Greek village of Afidnes
Photo: Thanassis Stavrakis, CTK / AP
Tens of kilometers from the nearest flames, the sky is yellow, in some places ash falls. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a televised speech that climate change was behind the bad weather.
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